Kappa Chapter Founding & History

Ben Harrison, later to become the President of the United States, arrived as a student at University in 1850 and joined the Phi Delta Theta Fraternity. As noted by Professor Havinghurst in his book, The Years (p. 97-8):,

Soon he [Ben Harrison] and David Swing persuaded the rest [of the members of Phi Delta Theta] to take the pledge against alcohol. Members who fell off the wagon were reprimanded in chapter meeting. After a stormy session, Gideon McNutt and two other offenders were expelled from the fraternity. Three other sympathizers left with them A few months later, early in 1852, a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon from Yale came to Oxford for a visit and move in with McNutt and his friends. The visitor, Jacob Cooper, saw here a Wily group of Dekes and proceeded to initiate them the Kappa Chapter was established at on March 8, 185Z with six original members and six more added before the year was out.

The six original members of the Kappa Chapter of Delta Kappa Epsilon referred to above were:

James H. Childs* Class of 1852
James A. Hughes Class of 1852
W M. Trevor Class of 1853
Joseph G. McNutt* Class of 1853
Andrew C. Kemper' Class of 1853
Alexander C. McCurg Class of 1853

* indicates former members of Phi Delta Theta

 

The founding of the Kappa Chapter was explained in more detail in

Old Miami, The Yale Of The Old West (p.119-23):

 

They [the Phi Delts] had seen some three years of prosperous existence, and were taking themselves very seriously. It was a splendid crowd, with the stubby figure of Ben Harrison as a leading spirit... For some months they had been considering a total-abstinence regulation, but one faction knew that this was a matter of a man's own conscience. Harrison and his cohort, with some faculty backing, urged the measure upon them. The opposition kept shoving it on into the future. Then one day Gideon McNutt came laughing into their midst, and the proposition could be shoved no farther. You have known men Mr. Gideon: brilliant, magnetic, impulsive, devil-may; the kind of man you love in spite of yourself, and your heart aches as you watch him take some fatal plunge with a song on his lips.

The whole chapter wanted Gideon at once, and soon had his promise to join thereafter. But the total abstinence law was never framed that Gideon could keep. He was always by the wayside, to notice the ashen daybreak and give a tearful pledge of everlasting rectitude. And he meant it, too. He joined the college temperance society, was made its prosecuting officer, and bless me if the call of the perverse didn't tempt him into stumbling on the very nights when the society was meeting.

 

The chapter told him he must straighten up or never be initiated. He promised sincerely,- and two weeks later went through the ceremony happy but somewhat more than half-seas over. Then came the crisis. One party was for expelling him at once, together with another brother who had assisted rather largely in his excesses. The liberals argued for forgiveness and still one more chance: they had lost count just how many that would make. Finally, in the heat of controversy, they asserted that if these men went they would go, too. Solemnly they approached a ballot, dreading, all of them, to face the issue. At last it came. McNutt and his convivial comrade groped their way from the room, and after them came three others of the little group - never again to enter the counsels of the chapter. Under an elm in the campus the culprits and the bolters met and swore allegiance, while back in the dim-lighted little room, Phi Delta Theta sat silently, but triumphant, after her baptism of blood...

Soon after this, Jacob Cooper, a DKE from Yale whose parents lived near Word, visited at and became acquainted with Gideon's band. He proposed to them a chapter of his own fraternity, and ultimately succeeded in establishing it. Thus the Dekes appeared in the University in 1852, and entered their claim for recognition.